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Pa. state library faces budget cut

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania state library, founded by Benjamin Franklin 263 years ago, has survived two wars and a catastrophic fire.

Among the options for dealing with a proposed $2.5 million budget cut at the state library in Harrisburg are cutting 51 of 56 staffers and cutting back on the 48.5 hours a week it is open.
Among the options for dealing with a proposed $2.5 million budget cut at the state library in Harrisburg are cutting 51 of 56 staffers and cutting back on the 48.5 hours a week it is open.Read moreDAVID M WARREN / Staff Photographer

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania state library, founded by Benjamin Franklin 263 years ago, has survived two wars and a catastrophic fire.

Now, library advocates fear, its latest threat may be its most dire.

In the face of a multibillion-dollar deficit, Gov. Rendell wants to halve the state library budget - from $4.8 million to $2.3 million - which could all but wipe out the 56-person staff.

"They're obviously going to be crippled by this," said Glenn Miller, executive director of the Pennsylvania Library Association.

A Rendell spokesman said that the administration was committed to libraries and that it kept its promise to restore funding for the hundreds of local libraries that had a 50 percent reduction in 2003.

"Our support for libraries over the course of administration is a matter of public record," Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said. "Our proposal for this year is simply a matter of fiscal reality."

Under one scenario, the library could lose a lot more than half its staff positions - 51 of 56, in fact - prompting some to ask how the library could remain open.

"I can't imagine how they would function as a library with five people," said Elliot Shelkrot, the former head of the Free Library of Philadelphia who is now interim library director at the William Jeanes Memorial Library in Lafayette Hill.

Library commissioner M. Clare Zales said she was scrambling to find other ways to reduce costs - such as limiting hours - and preserve more jobs.

"It's a substantial cut," Zales said. "We will keep the lights on, but we may not be able to maintain the current schedule of hours." The library is open 48.5 hours a week, Monday through Saturday.

She also said the library would not be able to respond as quickly to interlibrary loans and information requests.

The state library, one of four major research institutions statewide (the Free Library of Philadelphia serves the southeast), is the central repository for all published material related to state government.

Housed behind its majestic art deco walls are the state law and education libraries, one of the nation's largest newspaper collections, as well as extensive Pennsylvania Dutch history and other genealogy resources - 1.6 million items in all.

In the deep recesses below the main library floor is the heavily fortified rare-book collection, which contains nearly the entire original Benjamin Franklin "Assembly Collection" (420 books), including leatherbound volumes of the statutes of England and the oversize Assembly Bible used for swearing-in ceremonies.

It also houses books from Franklin's press, including Poor Richard's Almanac, as well as Colonial-era newspapers and historic maps.

Since the library was established in December 1745, the collection has survived numerous threats. The first was in 1777, when the British were poised to occupy Philadelphia and the collection was spirited away to Lancaster for safekeeping.

In 1863, as Confederate troops approached Harrisburg, the 23,000-volume collection was hastily packed onto a freight train and moved back to Philadelphia.

Then, in 1897, a huge fire that destroyed the state Capitol left the neighboring building, and the library collection, untouched.

Keeping a library with 25 miles of shelves and demand from researchers around the globe is labor-intensive. There is the daily flow of books, newspapers. and other materials to contend with, restocking shelves, and answering the myriad requests and questions - 20,000 last year - that bombard staff daily.

"It takes a lot of people to answer a lot of questions," said Judy Townsend, the division chief for public services. "We get the tough ones. Google gets the easy ones."

The state library cut comes as Rendell is proposing trimming by 5 percent funding for 624 local libraries in order to save $2 million.

The library association's Miller said the cuts hamstring libraries when they are undergoing a surge in popularity tied to the economy. More people who can no longer afford Internet services or book purchases are turning to libraries, and unemployed workers are using library computers to type resumes and hunt for jobs, Miller said.

"Librarians are serving people who are out of work at the time they need libraries the most," he said.

Glen Weber of Mechanicsburg was the lone researcher in the genealogy room at the state library one morning last week. He said he had been collecting information on his family history for 20 years and preferred using the original source material rather than reading what's available online.

"I don't trust anything from the Web," he said.

Asked what he would do if the library were to roll back its hours, Weber said, "I'll just have to go somewhere else."